Teresa’s acts of kindness

Lives of the saints inspire her charity Fund helps her brighten Christmas

Sometimes, the saints seem to call Teresa by name.

“ You know there are quite a lot of St. Teresas?” she asks. “ One is French, another is Jewish . . . she was canonized by the Pope a few years ago . . . and then there’s St. Teresa of Avila of Spain . . .

“ Okay, I’m trying hard to be the next candidate,” she concludes jokingly. Her path began where these things often do, at her local church. That’s where Teresa noticed new arrivals in the congregation — several with only the scantiest grasp of English.

“ I heard them speaking and I noticed the accent and I knew I could help them by translating,” she says. The wife of a career diplomat, Teresa spent years in Mexico and Argentina and speaks fluent Spanish. She learned three families, refugees from Colombia and Mexico, lived in the same stark Scarborough housing block. A gaggle of young children would spend their first Christmas in one of Scarborough’s less celebrated neighbourhoods.

“ For us, it’s the horrible part of Scarborough,” Teresa says. “ For them it’s like heaven.” Two families hail from Medellin, Colombia, a city that earned its reputation for drugs, violence and kidnappings.

“ They feared for their lives so they applied to become refugees to Canada.”

It’s not like Teresa doesn’t have other things on her mind. Her husband has Alzheimer’s and their jet setting days are gone. But just as quickly, her thoughts return to the refugee families. For all their joy to be living in a stark housing complex, a wall still holds the refugees back from a future in their new land. Language.

“ They can’t work,” Teresa says. “ It’s like a vicious circle. They can’t work so they don’t have money. When they come to the church and they can’t express themselves, I am the translator.” She and the congregation help the families along, taking up food collections when they can. Some of the children attended a church camp in the summer. But today, Teresa is speaking to them in another, more universal language: Christmas.

Teresa signed up six children from all three families for The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund. The charity, established in 1906, delivers presents to children under 12 from struggling families throughout much of Greater Toronto.

“ They will be so thrilled, those kids,” Teresa says.

In its 100th year, the Santa Claus Fund aims to raise $ 1.35 million to give 45,000 needy children in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Ajax and Pickering Christmas presents.

If you have been touched by the Santa Claus Fund, or have a story to tell, email ccotron@ thestar. ca or call 416- 814- 2751.